Strengthening relationships between jordanian and american teens

6-20-08
Day: 2

It was 8:10! Janet had told us the night before that we had to be at the breakfast table at 8:20. I quickly got ready and sprinted downstairs. In the breakfast room, an excellent breakfast awaited us: croissants, eggs, omelets, coffee, tea, orange juice, cereal …. You get the idea!! After stuffing my face with the delicious food, our group climbed aboard the bus to pick up our fellow Jordanian friends at the National Orthodox School. As they boarded the bus, they were nothing but warm greetings and friendly welcomes to greet our friends. As soon as the bus started the tentative relationships we had started the day before, started to strengthen and intensify.  I remembered the first time we met, which was about an hour before yesterday’s concerts. We were introduced to each other by reciting our names while standing in a big circle. The situation was very awkward and oddly quiet. Very unusual for a large group of boisterous teenagers. But judging by the noise on the bus, it seemed as though we had known each other for years.

We were going to a cultural center to begin our new program between Interfaith Action and Co-Existence, the organization founded and led by Father Nabil. When we arrived at the cultural center, we began the morning off with introduction speeches from Father Nabil and Janet Penn. The speeches basically stated that they were both very excited for this new program to begin, they wanted everyone to keep an open enquiring mind, and they also reminded us that the whole program was going to be done by the youth without any major adult interference. After the speeches, a member of Interfaith Action, Dan Resnick, went up to the podium to talk about what are the main events organized by Interfaith. Dan also started an icebreaker. An icebreaker is an activity that helps to “break the ice” and to start the day smoothly.

In this certain icebreaker, everyone is supposed to go to the podium to say their name, and two interesting facts about them. This activity was very enjoyable and fun and resulted in many laughs. I noticed that at least in one of the facts told by the Jordanians, they mentioned that they were really excited for this program, and wanted it to be a success. In contrast, none of the Americans said anything about the program, but told everyone about their favorite hobbies. Following this icebreaker, Nazeela Nasseri, another member of Interfaith Action, explained one of Interfaith’s main events: Sacred seasons. She mentioned that Sacred Seasons is an event held in Sharon, Massachusetts that include three holidays, which are all around the same time. The Jewish harvest festival of Sukote, Ramadan, a Muslim holiday, and Navrathri, a Hindu holiday, were all celebrated at Sacred Seasons. After Nazeela finished explaining Sacred Seasons, Aleena Zaidi, explained another event organized by Interfaith, the TIDE conference. The TIDE conference was held at Harvard University, which is located in Boston, MA. At the TIDE conference, members of Interfaith Action held several workshops, which impressed many of college students who attended them.

Finally Kara Rodecker explained about the effect Interfaith had on local schools in Sharon. Interfaith, she explained, worked with Sharon Middle School, and in the several elementary schools to teach the children why stereotypes are bad. Finally we finished off the morning with several icebreakers, which made all the youth line up in a line based on their birthdays, and height without talking. After these exercises, we did a final icebreaker called, “Would you Rather.” In this icebreaker, two choices are read and participants must decide which they would rather be. Examples include dog or cat, pen or pencil, or ocean or mountain. Following this activity, everyone took a snack break, in which chocolate croissants and soda was served. This break also allowed all the youth to take many pictures of one another. After the break, all the youth went into a different room and were introduced to Interfaith’s seven ground rules:
1) We will speak for ourselves and from our own experience
2) We will listen with an open heart and mind
3) We will set aside the need to persuade others to agree with us
4) We will not interrupt others when they are talking
5) We will not attack a person based on their faith
6) We will “pass” if we don’t want to speak
7) We will limit our responses to a pre-determined amount of time to make sure everyone has a chance to speak.

Then, we started to do an Interfaith workshop called concentric circles. In this workshop, the Americans would be in the inside circle, while the Jordanians would be in the outside circle. Since there were fourteen Americans, and twenty-eight Jordanians, each American got two Jordanians. The activity would begin when a question was asked. Then every member in your group had to answer the question within the two-minute time limit. Three questions were asked in this activity: What do you like in a friend, What does family mean to you, and what is your typical school day like. I learnt that all the Jordanians like all their friends to be honest and truthful, they do no have school on Friday’s and Sunday’s, and also family is an essential part of their daily lives. Also, I started to notice that during the concentric circles, the noise coming from the room, started to rise. It seemed as though we were really starting to bond with each other.

While talking with one my Jordanian friends, I was shocked to find out that they thought the Americans would look down upon the Jordanians! He admitted he was COMPLETELY wrong when he realized the Americans were exactly like the Jordanians. After the workshop was over, we all hopped on to the bus to go out for lunch. Lunch was going to be held at an exquisite restaurant called Paradise. The lunch was delicious and filled all of our stomachs to the brim. After lunch, we all went on the bus for a tour of the wonderful city of Amman. In the tour we went to the Royal Automobile Museum, which was a collection of cars from the late King of Jordan, King Hussein. Unfortunately, we could not go inside the museum. Suddenly I checked the time and was astonished to see that it was 6:30pmm. I was very sad that our first full day in Jordan was coming to a close.

We finished the remainder of our tour without any fanfare, and were dropped off at Le Vendome, our hotel. Then all of the American youth had a group discussion about our eventful day led by Janet. Following the meeting, we all decided to leave in fifteen minutes to take a nightly stroll around the surrounding streets, buy simcards for our cell phones, and to eat dinner. This concluded day two in Jordan, but I was very excited about the outcome of it, and cannot wait for the rest of the days to arrive! Tommorow, we are going to tour the ancient city of Jarash, located in the north of Jordan. I believe that this trip will definitely be a loving memory of mine for the years to come, and hopefully these interactions between youth of various faiths and countries can keep occurring to provide a safe environment full of peace and prosperity for the years to come.